Grooming.

I recently looked up a governmental official on Wikipedia and inadvertently clicked on their photo. With today’s technology, official portraits can be huge in size and the photo in this Wikipedia article blew up to unreasonable proportions.

Because of my eccentric obsession with shaving and with facial hair, I couldn’t help but notice the public official did a really lousy job of shaving for his official portrait. If you look close, he’s missed a bunch of spots around his mouth, and in various areas on his cheeks. He probably just glided over his face really quick with an electric razor before the photo shoot and called it a day. Smile and say cheese.

So then I got to looking at other politicians’ official portraits, all male, and zoomed in to see what their shaving habits appeared to be. When you can zoom in to outlandish dimensions, it’s easy to see who cares about their appearance and who’s in rush.

Joe Biden and Donald Trump? They both shave well. Don Jr.? Before the beard that poor bastard had no idea what he was doing. The best I can ascertain about Eric Trump is he used his mother’s Flicker razor from the 1970s. Chad Wolf, Acting Secretary of the DHS? He’s a mess. Mike Pence? Like the guy above, he shaves with an electric shaver and he misses a lot of spots. Who knows, maybe Mother shaves him. Mitch McConnell? The dude is mean as hell but his clean shave is well done. Chuck Schumer must go to the same barber because he shaves well as well. Illinois Senator Dick Durbin is groomed well. I could go on for a while discussing this but I shan’t bore the reader.

I had a hypothesis that Republican male politicians were careless in their shaving habits but Democrats were more refined. This turned out to be false. The interesting thing is as the men get younger, the lazier they became with their shaving habits, at least for their big photo shoot where they take their official photo and get it plastered on Wikipedia. And then people blog about them.

At one time the White House had a full-functional barbershop but I believe it has since been replaced with a spray tan facility. Trump has been sporting a light mahogany lately.

14 November 2020 by Why. 0

306.

The counts have been projected for all 50 states of the union at Joe Biden is projected to get 306 electoral college votes and is the next President of the United States. Unless, of course, Trump resigns early so Pence pardon him, and then Biden slides into the role as #47. With the topsy turvy asshattery of the Trump administration, who knows what will happen. But despite all the hand wringing and fake lawsuits and use of CAPS LOCK to denote FACTS and TRUTH in tweets and the like, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have 306 votes and will be the next President and Vice President.

Trump cheerleader Kellyanne Conway talked about a 306-232 victory in 2016 and said it best.

It is my ultimate wish to never hear from her or her ilk again. I’m hopeful the Trumps and their cult followers will go back under the rocks they used to live under and we’ll get back to building a better United States. Of course, this is a pie in the sky fantasy, but the important thing is that Biden will be President and that signals that better times are ahead for us.

I think Joe Biden was the best realistic choice for the 2020 Presidential Election. I hope his message of unity and reconciliation will reach those that need to hear it. But at least the hopefully worse part of this nightmare is coming to an end.

13 November 2020 by Political BS. 0

Words.

I walk a lot. I average about six miles a day, usually taken in three different walks. My beginning of the day walk is the opportunity to listen to podcasts. My playlist generally contains podcasts about tech, but I also listen to some featuring humor or news commentary. Now that I think about it, what news isn’t commentary these days?

I also walk twice during my traditional work hours, once in the morning and once in the late afternoon. Lately I have been leaving my phone behind and opting to instead lose myself in my thoughts. I tend to solve work problems during these walks but occasionally I think about non-work topics as well. I rely on my Apple Watch to keep track of my steps and people are able to still reach me by text message. Responding can be a little tricky.

The only drawback is when I walk without my phone I have no way of capturing any photos. And lately I’ve been enjoying taking photos. The magic of taking the film to get developed is gone, but it’s fun to see photos on a bigger screen when I pull them up on my MacBook or iPad Pro.

But alas, my Apple Watch does not have a camera in it. And I’m OK with that.

12 November 2020 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Precautions.

When I was in elementary school, before we headed for the buses out front when the clock clicked to 3:30 p.m., we had to turn our chair upside down on our desk. This would make it easier for the custodians to clean the classroom after school hours. We did this every school day without fail, even that one time where we didn’t leave school until around 5:00 PM at night because the buses were having a hard time getting back to the school through the snow after the first run had taken the high school students home.

One of the elementary schools in our neighborhood, a private school for German students, has been holding their classes outside. I believe the Chicago Public Schools are closed, but private schools are open, and this is their way of keeping the students safe from COVID-19.

I had to giggle a little bit when I walked by and noticed the students are putting their chairs up on the tables outside. This is probably a good thing; we had a bit of rain yesterday and the chairs could have probably been swept away in the downpour last night.

I really appreciate that this school is open in as safe a way as possible. With the colder weather now here do I encourage them to be open with the students inside? Probably not. The classrooms look quite small and while I don’t know how big the typical class is, it doesn’t look like they’d have a lot of success in separating the students with social distancing.

I know this pandemic sucks. It sucks for everyone and it’s sucking extra hard for the U.S. because so many of our fellow citizens believe it doesn’t exist. But it does exist.

Do the right thing. Wear a mask. Maintain social distancing. Put your chair up on your desk at the end of the day.

11 November 2020 by Ponderings and Musings 0

Menz.

Kylie Minogue’s new album “DISCO” dropped this week and I’m just starting to listen to it on Apple Music.

We must always whet our appetite with this video before listening to new music from Kylie.

Because I am way gay, here’s a bunch of men dancing to “Get Outta My Way”. I have my favorite of the bunch.

10 November 2020 by DJ Gayish. 0

Outta Here.

I’ve mentioned before my hate for Facebook, which contradicts my tendency to keep the account around to keeps tabs on my family back East.

We have relations raging at us over Facebook Messenger because we talked about the jubilant celebrations across Chicago over the weekend after the announcement of President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris. Others are vowing that only the legal votes should count. Apparently they’re legal if they’re for the Republican side of the aisle in Congress, but the same exact pieces of paper are illegal if they contain a vote for Biden-Harris.

So, I’m deleting Facebook off my devices and have set up restrictions on my devices to curtail my accessing the platform through a web browser. If something meaningful happens with the family back East, they’ll call me.

The future is bright. Let’s get their now. Warp speed.

9 November 2020 by Ponderings and Musings 0

Jubilation.

The energy in the neighborhood has been amazing for the past 24 hours. Last night there were fireworks going off all over the place. Folks were dancing in the streets. Sounds of cheering and frankly, a happiness we have not heard in years, was present everywhere. The celebration of President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris is electric.

Here’s a few photos from our walk this morning.

8 November 2020 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Memes.

So there’s a meme going around talking about “even though we differ in political beliefs, we can still be friends”. Differences in political beliefs are things like recognizing the difference in budgetary spending. Voting for a political party that will actively try to remove healthcare during a global pandemic or try their best to erase the validity of my marriage, hence bringing into the question the validity of my very being, is not a difference in political beliefs.

It’s a complete opposition of moral compass. It’s a lack of compassion. It’s the absence of a strong moral foundation.

It’s selfishness.

I don’t believe I’m selfish in wanting to enjoy the jubilation of a legal marriage to my husband. I believe my love has every right to be celebrated in the same manner as every other person’s love in this country. A vote for Trump is ultimately a vote against my marriage, against healthcare for everyone, and against a woman’s right to choose. Why would any self respecting woman vote to negate their right to make decisions regarding their own body?

I’ll never understand it.

So when I see the meme saying my friendship shouldn’t be based on your political beliefs, you’re right. They’re based on your character.

7 November 2020 by Politics. 0

Let The Sunshine In.

There’s more in the way of blog entries coming this weekend, but I have to share, this song just keeps going through my head.

Congratulations President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris!

7 November 2020 by Fun and Games Dept 0

About J.P.

Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.

Weird? Eccentric!

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